Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Teaching is HARD Y'All!

When I was in graduate school, a group of us gathered after our first official day of intern teaching. We sat slumped over and exhausted. No one spoke as the grim realities of the challenges we faced as teachers set in. Finally, my sweet classmate piped up and said, “Teaching is HARD y’all!”

That just about sums it all up.

After taking two years off and working as a teacher author full time, I decided to go back to teaching part time. I blogged about leaving teaching here, and my anticipated triumphant return to the classroom here. And then...Crickets. Five months of crickets.

I could make a million excuses about not blogging. I could explain about drowning in paperwork, hours upon hour of grueling lesson plans, testing, teaching, and being a wife and mother of 3.

Instead I am just going to say this. Teaching is HARD y’all! If you are a teacher, you get this. No further explanation is needed!

Now that half of the school year has passed, I finally feel like I am getting my sea legs back.

My plan is to blog about how I am keeping my head above water in the sea of lesson plans, data points, high engagement activities, standards, rigor, assessment, high stakes testing, enrichment, remediation, and day to day life in the classroom.

The blogs I am planning are:

Positive Teacher “Self Talk”

Taming the Lesson Plan Monster

Exit Slips: How They Will Change Your Classroom

Establishing a Success Spot

Scooting Around the Classroom

Test Prep Fun

Task Cards: Enrichment, Remediation, Reteaching, Oh My!

So there you have it! I have said it on the internet, and we all know if you read it on the internet, it must be true!